In telephone cross connect panels employed for the monitoring and re-routing of telephone circuits, wire and cable management is important for orderly installation, maintenance and replacement of panel wiring. A typical cross connect field for a DSX-1 type panel contains five terminal pins per circuit. A typical in/out terminal field for such a panel contains four terminal pins per circuit. Typically, 56 circuits are provided in a standard 23 inch rack, with higher density panels employing up to 84 circuits per panel. Thus, the number of cross connect terminal pins can total 280 to 420, and the number of in/out terminal pins can total 224 to 336 per panel.
The in/out terminal pins are typically wired to the equipment terminal pins in groups of 28 circuits at a time (four terminal pins per circuit). As any installed cross connect jumpers would be in the way and prevent installation of equipment terminations in the in/out terminal pin field, in a typical panel, all in/out terminals of the 56 to 84 circuits of the panel must be wired to the equipment terminal pins prior to the start of termination of the cross connect jumpers.
Other difficulties which arise in cross connect panels of higher densities include cable/wire management after the terminal fields have been wired and the lack of space on the panels for labeling the circuits.